Other music sites

Here's my, purely personal, selection of handy music links.

Societies and organisations that support music and musicians

The UK Classic Rock Society supports good musicians, and CRS members receive the bi-monthly "Rock Society" magazine. While I had a pad in Nottingham it was great to be able to get to some of the excellent gigs they put on in Rotherham.
I now run the unofficial CRS discussion group, a Yahoo! Groups forum which hosts CRS-related discussions for those who prefer forums that allow email participation.
I sponsored the CRS Guitarist of the Year award in 2002, which I was delighted to see won by Bryan Josh of Mostly Autumn, and again in 2003 (Steve Hackett) and 2004 (Bob Lawson of Strangefish).

Heather Findlay (Mostly Autumn) at the CRS

Malvern Fringe organise gigs and other cool entertainment in and around Malvern.
Jim Hawkins now has a radio show devoted to classic rock on BBC Radio Shropshire (96FM, 90FM, 95FM, 104.1FM & DAB) - this is also relayed on BBC Stoke and Hereford & Worcester. Tune in on Sunday nights from 1800 to 2000 when you'll actually be able to hear some decent music!

Cathryn Craig at Solihull Boggery

Gig listings and ticket agencies (mainly UK)

Ents24 - The UK entertainment centre is a leading provider of UK entertainment listings and info, with comprehensive information covering every city and town. Its 100,000 pages cover more than 30,000 artists, 10,000 entertainment venues and 5,000 photos.
Two good sites for Scottish gigs, venues and so forth are Jockrock and the Scotland Gig Guide.
London Net's Live Listings is useful for gigs in that part of the country.
The virtual Manchester What's On covers gigs in north-west England.
The Ultimate Gig Guide is a valuable source of East Midlands gig information.
eFestivals is another neat UK festival site.
Glastonbury has a comprehensive web site all of its own!
The Way Ahead Box Office, aka Tickets-Online, is a Nottingham-based booking agency that sells tickets for many venues, not just in the East Midlands.
StarGreen Box Office is a handy ticket outlet in London, covering all main venues.
TicketWeb is another useful London online box office.
Ticketmaster UK are one of the major UK ticket agencies.
Musi-Cal is a more general US index that can be updated directly by its users.
Timeout also has listings for major cities across the world.

Dave Cousins (Strawbs) at Derby Flowerpot

Venue information

The Bilston Robin 2 is a superb venue. Recently refurbished and having a marvellous sound system, it is a bastion of live music in the Black Country. I took photos of the Strawbs there on 28/6/2005.
Derby Flowerpot is an excellent venue that hosts a great range of gigs by progressive, tribute and other bands. It also has a superb bar with a wide selection of real ales. I photographed the Acoustic Strawbs there on 8/2/2002 and Karnataka on 20/3/03.
Camden Dingwalls is a superb London venue for upcoming and cult bands. I always have a good time there and have photographed Drugstore there on 1/8/2000 and 3/12/2001.
King Tuts Wah Wah Hut is Glasgow's premier venue for small and indie bands. I enjoyed many an excellent night there while I was living in Scotland.
The Charlotte is a favourite venue of mine in Leicester, where amongst others I have seen Drugstore on several occasions.
The Marrs Bar is a lively Worcester venue that hosts local and alternative bands.
Huntingdon Hall is another great venue in Worcester - a converted church that has retained almost all of its original decor. I have twice seen the Strawbs there.
Wolverhampton Varsity is a great place in the West Midlands.
Stourbridge Rock Café is another West Midlands venue that features classic rock and other good bands.
Camden Underworld is a great London venue - right opposite Camden Town tube - which hosts all kinds of rock and other bands.
The Barfly Club has a regular diet of interesting bands, with venues in Camden, London; Cardiff and Sheffield.
The Cavern Club in Exeter is another good venue for smaller bands. A lovely part of the country, I had a girlfriend in nearby Honiton once.
Live4Metal has useful information about a number of London venues.
Access all Areas is a database intended for performers giving information about the stage and backstage facilities available at each one.

Isabel and Daron (Drugstore) at Highbury Garage

CD vendors

mail-order are the best UK online/mail-order company for progressive titles, and also stock a good range of mainstream rock CDs.
is a new online CD retailer that focusses on artists beyond short term music industry fashions, across a variety of genres from pop to rock to folk to metal to prog, and all points in between.
is a French site that concentrates on music "stimulating any spiritual activity".
101CD is a good site for records that aren't easy to find in the shops.
The Freak Emporium has a marvellous selection of space-rock, psychedelia and more modern types of 'head music', as well as mainstream progressive titles.
Action records is an independent record shop in Preston that stocks a wide range of hard-to-find CDs.
Record-X is a secondhand e-tailer based in Wakefield with a diverse catalogue, well worth checking for hard-to-find or deleted CDs.
www.spincds.com is a good vendor from Newcastle-upon-Tyne with a decent range of stock.
Vinylnet is a great UK collectable vinyl and CD store.
offer very competitive prices for CD sales to the UK.
BlahDVD offer music DVDs and CDs at discounted and competitive prices.
eil.com is an international specialist music e-tailer based in Meopham, Kent.
World Wide Rarities (VinylTap Ltd) is a specialist site based in Huddersfield.
Reddingtons Rare Records is a long-established specialist secondhand music store based in Birmingham. Their speciality has always been 7" vinyl but they do stock some CDs too.
Amazon also offer an extensive range - I have found them handy for getting CDs from foreign artists not well known here in Britain.
Audiostreet, a department of Streets Online, is another good online UK store - it's associated with the MVC high-street chain which generally offers competitive prices.
CD Zone is another useful UK site for ordering CDs and other material - it has a nice feature allowing you to establish a wish list of currently unavailable titles.
Resurrection Records in Camden are a good source for Gothic and other types of metal.
Southern are a UK mail-order company more geared towards indie/alternative titles.
Piccadilly Records is a great shop in Manchester.
Independent Musicians Marketplace, run by Second Fret Records, allows you to listen to tracks from independent bands' CDs and then buy what you want.
London Metal Stores contains a directory of most London record stores, everything from megastores down to small independent shops.

Sites that promote music and musicians

Pagan Rock on the Web is a useful page of links to pagan rock bands and other related sites.
The Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock is a superb catalogue of the less-well-known progressive rock bands.
The Dutch Progressive Rock Page gives a good starter on the Dutch scene and contains many useful pointers elsewhere too.
is a great site listing many bands with discographies and reviews. It also has a good classification of the different styles of classic/progressive rock.
www.mostlypink.nl is great fan site focussing on Pink Floyd, Mostly Autumn and a number of other great bands.
Progressive Ears is a more interactive site devoted to classic rock bands.
Musical Discoveries actively follows and promotes contemporary, progressive and crossover music that features female vocalists, with reviews, interviews and career histories. They include a feature on Karnataka.
Melodic Hard Rock Today is devoted to melodic rock bands. A review of Karnataka's Strange Behaviour album is included there.
Progressive Rock & Progressive Metal - Internet Zine is a Brazilian webzine that have featured photos of Ashtar.
A Darker Shade of Pagan is another good site promoting pagan bands, featuring Inkubus Sukkubus amongst others.
The UK Net Goth site has a useful directory of Goth bands.
Rare Lyrics is a useful and fairly wide-ranging archive of song lyrics.
- British Underground Rock Bands is a site for independent British bands, with its own Internet radio station, to help spread the word and get their music more widely heard.
Auralgasms.com is devoted to presenting and discussing under-appreciated artists.
Getreadytorock.com showcases prog/metal/AOR/folk - anything bar death metal! Lost of interviews, too.
CelebrityBlog.Net includes pages for bands such as Karnataka.
Anil Prasad's INNERVIEWS®

Publications and media

The New Music is a great Canadian TV show. It used to be broadcast on British ITV during the small hours, until the b***ards axed it! :(
Ghostland is an excellent eZine from the stable that produces cool US progressive music Progression Magazine.
organart.com is the publisher of Organ magazine, which regularly features articles about classic rock bands. They also produce Organ TV and run their own record label, Org Records.
PAPERLATE is Holland's main radio-show for progressive and classic rock, also on the Internet.
Acid Dragon is a French prog magazine (though it's published in English).
Silhobbit.Com is a progressive rock e-zine that rose from the ashes of the former Silhobbit magazine.
NME is one of the leading UK weekly papers.

John Ford (Strawbs) at Exeter Phoenix

Indexes

The Ultimate Bands List has now relaunched itself as a showcase for unsigned bands, allowing you to hear sample songs from each artist.
The All-Music Guide is a directory of useful band information though it probably needs more updates submitted from its users.
CDDB is a cool online CD info base which interfaces to a variety of CD player applets to present disc and track information as you listen!
Essential Media is a catalog and guide to the essential works of postmodern, alternative and fringe culture.
The Indie Index contains a significant listing of indie bands.
The Groove Guide is a US database with bands, gigs etc.
There is a good page of Internet Music Resources at the William and Gayle Cook Music Library, Indiana University School of Music.
Yahoo Entertainment - Music is also a useful pointer.

Record labels

A New Day Records are a UK label for progressive rock and other forms of music. Their catalogue includes Dagmar 41's ivyation.
Ankst Records have released a lot of great music from Welsh bands such as Melys.
Cyclops records (also GFT mail-order) - host to a good number of today's progressive rock bands.
Kinesis records is a contemporary American progressive label whose roster previously included Norfolk pagans Earthstone.
Musea records are a French prog label with a strong catalogue.
Witchwood Records is a well-run, expanding label initially established for Strawbs but now looking to widen its horizons.

Sites offering services to bands and musicians

Please note I have no personal experience of using any of these sites' offerings:

Disc Wizards - in London, specialises in CD and DVD replication, Blu-Ray duplication and mastering at competitive prices.
Music Media Entertainment Group's mission is to bring new talent to the public by providing an Internet-based community that nurtures and supports creative talent.